Entries in Industry (25)

Wednesday
Mar092011

Albert V. "Marc" Marcolin

Marc Marcolin was born in Bellevue, Alberta on March 24, 1919.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Alberta.

He joined Cominco in Calgary in 1941 and came to Trail in 1946. He worked abroad for Cominco from 1958 until 1974. He then returned to Trail as Vice President of Western Operations.

Prior to his retirement in April 1984, Marc Marcolin was President of Cominco Electronic Materials Division. Marc was in charge of the modernization of the Cominco Industrial Complex and was involved in the development of the Electronic Materials Business.

Marc was involved in setting up and operating the Community Economic Action Committee, the Community Futures Society and the Business Development Centre until he was elected Mayor of Trail in 1987.

Other activities:
Chairman: Community Economic Action Committee, 1986-1988
Chairman: Community Futures Society, 1986-1988
Chairman: Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
Chairman: Trail Junior High Building Committee
Director: Rossland Museum, mid 1970s-1984
Director: Selkirk College Foundation, 1981-1984

Marc Marcolin has been continually active in many clubs and services.

Friday
May132011

Bill McEwan

Bill was born and raised in Trail and has spent over 30 years in grocery retailing. He is currently President and CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Sobeys's Incorporated.

Bill began his career at Ferraro's Ltd., or Super Valu, at the age of 15, spending 13 years with the company in a variety of roles in BC and Alberta. He joined Coca Cola Ltd. in Toronto in 1989 and held a number of senior positions with the firm before joining A&P Canada as a Senior Vice President of Grocery and Non-food Merchandising in 1994. He was appointed President and Chief Merchandising Officer of that company in 1996 and also served as President and CEO of the company's US-Atlantic Region. In 2000, he joined Sobey's. There he has overseen the development of the company's long-term strategic plan, built a solid leadership team that has executed Sobey's Food Focused Program plans.

Bill has served on the Board of Directors for CIES, the Food Business Forum, the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, and the Grocery Industry Foundation. In 1999, he was recognized as National Volunteer of the Year by the Kids Help Phone Foundation.

In 2005, he was presented with the Golden Pencil Award, the Canadian Grocery Industry's highest honour in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Canadian Food Industry.

Friday
May092014

Bruce LeRose

Bruce LeRose is recognized for his contribution to the profession of Law in British Columbia.  Bruce is a partner in the Trail law firm of Thompson, LeRose & Brown.

Bruce graduated from the University of BC with a law degree in 1982.  He returned to his hometown of Trail and joined the law firm of Geronazzo and Thompson.  He became a partner in the firm in 1987.

He has been President of the Kootenay Bar Association and represented the County of Kootenay at the BC Law Society from 2004 to 2012.  During that time, he served on the Society's Finance Committee, the Practice Standards, Credentials and Unauthorized Practice Committee, and chaired the Lawyer Education and Continued Professional Development, the Small Form Task Force, the Special Compensation Fund and the Trust Assurance Fund.

Bruce was President of the Law Society in 2012, the only Kootenay lawyer in the history of the Law Society of BC to become President.  In 2006, he was named Queen's Counsel.

Bruce has also been very involved in his community, as a Board member of Columbia View Lodge, Sanctuary, the Rossland-Trail Golf Club, and has been President of the Colombo Lodge.  In 2001, he chaired the committee responsible for the construction of the Trail Centennial Family Park and in 2007 he chaired the organizaing committee for the World Junior 'A' Hockey Challenge in Trail.

Bruce resides in Trail with his wife, Melanie.  He has two sons, Nicholas and Alex.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Bruno Basilio Freschi

Bruno Freschi was the chief architect and planner of the 1986 Vancouver Exposition site.

Bruno Freschi was born in Trail April 18, 1937. He graduated from J. Lloyd Crowe Secondary School. As a UBC graduating student, he received Canada's top architecture award ($2500 traveling scholarship). He studied in London with the Architectural Association before joining Massey-Erikson in 1964. He founded Bruno Freschi Architects in 1970 in Vancouver, BC.

Projects completed at his firm include Georgia Place, Whistler Village and MacMillian Bloedel's Research Centre. At the same time as Expo 86 was being planned, Bruno also designed an Ismaili Temple in Burnaby which was the first Muslim Prayer House in North America.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Derek Fraser

CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE

Derek Fraser was born in Trail, BC on March 6, 1937. He grew up in Rossland, where he attended the Rossland Elementary and the Rossland High Schools. His father, Thurlow Fraser, was a Senior Buyer in the Purchasing Department of Cominco, while his mother taught Home Economics in the Rossland High School. Derek Fraser worked for several summers at Cominco and at the Paterson Customs, which paid for his University studies.

Mr. Fraser studied at the University of British Columbia, where he received a B.A. in History and International Studies in 1958; at the Université de Montpellier where he obtained a Certificat d’Études françaises (Certificate of French Studies) in 1959; and at the University of British Columbia where he earned a Law Degree in 1963.


He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1963. In the early part of his career, he joined the Department of External Affairs in 1963; was Legal Advisor to the Canadian Delegation, Indo China Control Commission in 1964-65; Second Secretary, Canadian Embassy Bonn from 1966-70; German Desk, External Affairs from 1970-72; Councillor, Canadian Embassy Moscow from 1973-75; Deputy Director, Latin American Affairs, Adviser, Federal-Provincial Relations, Privy Council Office, Director of Western Europe from 1975-80; Minister-Counsellor, Canadian Embassy Belgium from 1980-84; Director Eastern Europe from 1984-88; Ambassador to Hungary from 1988-93; Senior Fellow, Canadian Foreign Service Institute from 1993-94; Acting Director General Culture from 1994-95; and Ambassador of Canada to Greece from 1995-98. Since 1998, he has been Ambassador to Ukraine.

He is married to Dr. Christina Hantel-Fraser. They have 4 children.

Mr. Fraser has just retired from Foreign Affairs and has taken up a position at the University of Victoria.

Tuesday
Sep132016

Don Freschi

Don Freschi was born in Trail in 1961 and is President/Executive Producer/Host of the television program “Sport Fishing on the Fly”, which he founded in 1995.  This sport fishing program is shown on television stations throughout North America.

He is one of the founding partners in the business Firebird Technologies and was its CEO.  The firm was a world leader in Indium Antimode semi-conductors and high quality purity metals.  He later became GM of 5N Plus who had purchased Firebird from the original owners.

Friday
May092014

Dr. Harold Menkes

Dr. Harold Menkes was not born in Trail, but lived his formative years here and attended the JL Crowe High Shool in the mid-1950s.  Following graduation, Harold attended the University of British Columbia earning his medical degree in 1963.  He then moved to do his residency training at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, and finally moving to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was also a professor in Pulmonary Medicine.  There, he and his wife, Marilyn, began to do original research in occupational and environmental lung disease.

At Johns Hopkins University, he is acknolwedged as an outstanding educator and made many highly significant contributions to research, having published 100 peer reviewed papers in highly respected medical journals.  He affected dozens of young physicians and basic researchers in lung disease.  He devoted his research career to reducing lung disease, such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma.

Dr. Menkes and his wife were killed in a car accident in 1987.  Following their deaths, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health established the Harold and Marilyn Menkes Memorial Lectureship in lung disease that enbales the Univeristy to invte a leading pulmonary scientist to the School for a two-day visit, which begins with a formal lecture to students, fellows and junior faculty.

Dr. Menkes and his wife had three children, Edana, Justin, and Alex.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Dr. Hugh Campbell

Dr. Hugh Campbell was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in September 1922, graduating from St. John's High School. He attended Queen's University, obtaining his M.D. in 1952. Dr. Campbell held residencies in Toronto Western Hospital in 1958, St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto also in 1958, Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children in 1959, and Vancouver General Hospital in 1959-60. He joined the Trail Regional Hospital staff in 1960.

His achievements include memberships in the West Kootenay Medical Society, North West Urological Society, and British Urological Society.

Dr. Campbell was vice-president of the Trail Senior Smoke Eaters, Warfield Swim Club, West Trail Little League, and the Kiwanis Club. He was also involved with Minor Hockey, the Handicapped Society, BC Swimming Association, and the Karate Club.

Dr. Campbell was the Jimmy Morris Sportsman of the Year in 1988 and also Trail Citizen of the Year in 1991.

Dr. Campbell was a strong supporter of minor sports in our community and was always present at hockey or ball tournaments as a volunteer physician. His dedication to our youth and sports was recognized by all of those he most willingly agreed to assist. His presence is deeply missed, whether at the Hospital, the Arena or the ball park.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Dr. John A. Cairns

Dr. John A. Cairns was appointed Dean to the University of BC Faculty of Medicine in 1996.

He obtained his M.D. from the University of British Columbia (1968) and was awarded the Hamber Gold Medal for highest standing in the fourth year of Medicine and the Hamber Scholarship for highest standing throughout the four years of the medical course. He continued his training in medicine and cardiology in the teaching hospitals of McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and primarily the Royal Victoria Hospital. He obtained his Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Cardiology (1973) and in Medicine (1974) and pursued research training at the Royal Victoria Hospital with the support of a Medical Research Council scholarship.

Dr. Cairns joined the Department of Medicine at McMaster University as an Assistant Professor in 1975 and was promoted to Professor in 1985.

His research interests have included studies of modification and non-invasive measurement of myocardial infarction size in humans and dogs, studies of acute ischemic syndromes with a particular focus on antithrombotic therapy, coronary care utilization, and post-myocardial infarction arrhythmias.

He has published over 120 peer reviewed papers and 15 book chapters. He has had peer review funding throughout his academic career from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Medical Research Council and the Ministry of Health of Ontario. Extensive funding was also received from industrial sources.

During his time at McMaster University, Cairns was an active clinical cardiologist working particularly in invasive cardiology and acute coronary care. He was also active in many education programs and has lectured extensively nationally and internationally.

Cairns is a member of numerous professional and scientific organizations and has held a variety of executive roles. He has chaired consensus conferences in cardiac care in both Canada and the United States. He is a member of a variety of editorial boards of peer-review journals and has served on numerous scientific review committees of peer-review agencies. He is currently a member or Chair of several data safety monitoring, external validation and steering committees of multi-centre studies.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Eugene Nesmith

Eugene Nesmith, who was raised in Trail, is President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Hongkong Bank of Canada.

Mr. Nesmith joined the Bank of Montreal in 1946. He was the Senior Vice-president for BC and Yukon when, in 1980, he joined Wardley Canada Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Under Mr. Nesmith's stewardship, Wardley Canada Ltd. converted to a Canadian bank in July, 1981.

In November, 1986, Mr. Nesmith played a key role in negotiating the acquisition of the assets and liabilities of the Bank of British Columbia for Hongkong Bank of Canada.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Gordon Longmuir

Ambassador & Plenipotentiary of Canada to the Kingdom of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

Mr. Longmuir was born in Trail in 1937 and was educated at schools in Trail and Victoria.

He served from 1955-1962 in the Royal Canadian Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant.

Gordon is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (Honours BA, International Studies, 1965) and the National Defence College of Canada (1980).

After joining the Department of External Affairs in 1965, Gordon served in:
New York, Tokyo (twice), Saigon and Hanoi (International Control Commission in Indochina, 1967-1969), Seoul & Bangkok (1984-1986 with accreditation also in Vietnam and Laos), New Delhi, 1991-1995 as Deputy High Commissioner for Canada, with accreditation as Minister Counsellor in Nepal.

At headquarters, he served in the Asia Pacific Branch and in the Defence Relations Division.

He was Canadian Secretary to the Canada-USA Permanent Joint Board on Defence from 1976-1979.

Gordon attended the National Defence College of Canada in 1979-1980.

He was Director of the Caribbean and Central America Division from 1987-1991.

He presented His Letters of Credence to His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk Varman on August 17, 1995.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Joe Drennan

Joseph Albert Drennan was President and Chief Executive Officer of West Kootenay Power from 1980 to 1993.
During this period Mr. Drennan successfully guided West Kootenay Power through two significant business transformations. The first occurred when Cominco set West Kootenay at arms length from its mining operations. That meant West Kootenay had to get into the money markets, purchase dams and networks from Cominco, find a new head quarters, and build from scratch many of the basic support services required to run a company.

Mr. Drennan orchestrated the company's development in Trail. Then in 1986, before the dust had settled from the first major change, Cominco chose to divest itself of non-core assets like West Kootenay Power.

A year later UtiliCorp United acquired WKP. It was a turning point for both companies, the first international acquisition for UtiliCorp, which today serves 4 million customers in five different countries.

From that point forward, Mr. Drennan and UtiliCorp redoubled their commitment to Greater Trail, a commitment that resulted in the construction of a $4.5 million head office in 1993.

Things continue to evolve and grow for UtiliCorp in Canada. The ebb and flow of the global market place that Joe Drennan foresaw and embraced every day.

Few Trailites would know that he was a past chairman of the Canadian Electric Association, whose members represent hundreds of billions dollars in utility investments and electric sales across our country. Or that he was a well-respected director of the Western Electric Power Institute, which dealt with bilateral industry interests in both Canada and the United States.

To everyone in Trail he was "Joe", a likeable unassuming gentleman who was as comfortable in the international arena as he was in the Cominco Arena.

Joe Drennan passed away on December 31, 1993.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Ken Georgetti

Ken Georgetti is one of B.C.'s most prominent labour leaders.

He is currently President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Prior to his election to that position in 1999, he had been President of the B.C. Federation of Labour since 1986. During his tenure, membership grew from 218,000 to 320,000 members.

He demonstrated a rare ability to bring labour and management together in joint projects without comprimising trade union principles.

Ken started his involvement in the union movement as a pipefitter with Cominco Ltd. in Trail.

In 1981, he was elected President of Local 480 of the United Steelworkers of America. As President, he worked to insure the long-term viability of the community economy by gaining support for Cominco's modernization project.

Under his leadership, Local 480 expanded its role as a civic organization supporting community social service development for the citizens if Trail.

Monday
Sep192011

Nello Angerilli

Nello was born in Trail in 1952, graduating from the JL Crowe in 1970.  Following graduation, he received a BSc from Simon Fraser Univeristy in 1974 and Masters Degree in Biological Science in 1978.

He describes himself as a "behavioural ecologist," studying how the evolution of animal behaviour, particularly those behaviours mediated by smell, provides selective advantage or can be manipulated in order to minimize or eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in agriculture.  Recently, he has turned his attention to the strengthening of education systems at the governmental and institutional levels.

Nello has extensive experience working on behalf of Canadian universities in Southeast Asia and Africa, where his research interests focus on behavioural ecology.  At SFU, he created SFU International, a unit charged with developing and managing the university's international interests.

For the past five years, Nello has been the Associate Vice-President, Students and International, during which time he led a major reorganization of the mission critical portion of the university.

Friday
May132011

Patrick McMahon

Pat was born and raised in Trail, graduating from J. Lloyd Crowe in 1967. Pat was an excellent junior hockey player, but in 1972, decided to pursue a career in motion picture editing in New York. There he apprenticed under Actor/Director Woody Allen. He worked as a freelance film editor in New York until 1995 before moving to Los Angeles to further his career.

In the past 25 years, Pat has completed an impressive list of editing credits in television and film. In 2006, Pat was nominated for an Emmy by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Picture Editing in Non-Fiction Programming for the HBO documentary film "Baghdad ER". This film has won worldwide acclaim for both HBO and Pat.

Pat's other major film credits include Stephen King's "The Stand" and "The Shining", "Following Her Heart", and television show's "Roswell" and "Jericho". Pat was also co-Editor of "A Nightmare on Elm Street". He was nominated for an Editing Award for his work on "The Shining" in 1997.

Pat is a member of the American Cinema Editors and continues to be in great demand in the field of Filmography.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Paul Trussell

INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH
Paul Trussell was born in Vancouver in July 1916 but grew up in Trail, where his father worked at the Cominco Smelter.
After graduation from Trail High School in 1934, he attended UBC, earning a degree in Agriculture. During 1939-40, Paul worked for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, now Cominco. Following UBC, he attended Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin, where he obtained a P.H.D. in Agricultural Bacteriology in 1943.

Following graduation, he took up a research position at Ayerst, McKenna & Harrison, a pharmaceutical company based in Montreal, as a Research Biologist. In 1947, Paul gained employment with the BC Research Council in Vancouver, where he remained until his retirement in 1980.

In 1961, Paul became Director In Charge of the BC Research Council, and rapidly put BC Research on a sound financial footing, with the majority of its funding coming from competitively-won private contracts, rather than government grants.

In 1963, he was invited to New York City to a United Nations meeting, organized by the Centre of Industrial Development. The purpose was to lay groundwork for the transfer of information, and this developed into a new field of contract work. For 15 years, he was closely involved with the initial formation of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Organizations, and was its Director for 8 years. Paul also served on the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. In 1970, Paul was the First Secretary General of the World Association of Industries and Technological Organizations. In 1973, he did an evaluation for the U.N. of the Industrial Research Operations in Turkey, this was followed in 1974 by similar studies in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

After retirement from BC Research in 1980, Paul served on international forestry missions, one to China in 1981 and another to Jamaica in 1982.

In 1990, Paul established a scholarship for science students, who have completed secondary schooling in the Kootenay-Boundary area. Paul’s initial contribution of $100,000 was matched by the BC Government, and the Vancouver Foundation contributed $75,000.

In 1979, Paul was able to purchase land in West Arrow Park, originally homesteaded by his father and where he had spent all the summers of his youth. Up until 1997, Paul and his wife spent half of the year at their Arrow Park property, and the other half at their home in Vancouver. Paul passed away in his sleep on May 6, 2001, Paul married Helen Dryer, and they have two sons, Richard and Devin.

Friday
May242019

Peter Dewdney

Peter was born in Trail in 1945.  Following his high school education here, he attended the University of British Columbia where he eventually received three degress:  a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics; a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering; and a Doctorate Degree in Electrical Engineering.  Dr. Dewdney is a Senior Research Officer with the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory National Research Council.  His research areas include HII regions, ionization and dissociation processes, interstar mediums, super nova remnants, astronomical data reduction and the design of telescopes.

Peter is the International Project Engineer for SKA and has served as a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester.  He has won the prestigious International Award for Radio Telescope Technology.  Peter is currently involved with the massive signal correlator located in New Mexico, a large radio wave telescope in Hawaii and leads a Canadian University team developing a large adaptive reflector.

Peter was inducted in 2019.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Peter Jones

OCEANOGRAPHIC SCIENCE AND RESEARCH
Peter was born on January 17, 1935 in Trail, BC. He attended school in Trail and after graduation, attended the University of British Columbia, obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Physics in 1958; and a P.H.D. in Physics in 1963.
He spent the next year and a half at the University of Tokyo, in Tokyo, as a National Research Counsel Post Doctorate Fellow, then two years at Columbia University in New York City as a Research Associate. In 1966, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Toledo in Ohio, and in 1972, was a Visiting Associate Professor at MacMaster University in Hamilton.

In 1973, he moved to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax, where he has been working ever since. Peter’s research at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography has been mostly in the Arctic and Labrador Sea. In 1976, he made his first voyage north of the Arctic Circle to Lancaster Sound in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This was followed by several other voyages to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Baffin Bay. Subsequently, he was the principle investigator on several international Arctic Ocean expeditions.

Between Arctic expeditions, he joined an expedition on the German icebreaker POLARSTERN, the first scientific voyage into the Arctic Ocean in modern times, exploiting modern technologies. In 1987, Peter again joined the POLARSTERN in another expedition that obtained the first modern oceanographic section across a major basin within the Arctic Ocean. In 1991, he was aboard the Swedish icebreaker ODEN on another expedition. He was aboard the Canadian icebreaker LOUIS ST. LAURENT, that together with the US icebreaker POLAR SEA, was the first ship to cross the Arctic Ocean. In addition to work in the Arctic, since 1986, Peter has been on annual and sometimes seasonal expeditions to the Labrador Sea and neighbouring regions of the North Atlantic Ocean.

more... Page 2

Wednesday
Mar092011

R.W. Diamond

R.W. Diamond, Cominco engineer and Administrator, led the team that developed the flotation method for the complex Sullivan Mine Ore (1918), and he led the project to produce chemical fertilizers at Trail in the late 1920's. Diamond won many awards for his accomplishments in the Metallurgical industry including:
1934: The McCharles Medal and Award from the University of Toronto.
1935: The Leonard Medal from the Engineering Institute of Canada.
1948: The Julian C. Smith Medal from the Engineering Institute if Canada.
1948: The Selwyn G. Blaylock Medal from the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
1951: The Platinum Medal from the Institute of Medals, London.
1956: The Gold Medal from the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, London.

Friday
May132011

Robert Bisaro

Bob was born and raised in Trail and following University, joined the Ford Motor Company in 1967 as an Engineer.

Bob is renowned for his work in vehicle emissions reductions, and through his accomplishments in the field, he has responded to worldwide environmental concerns.

Bob helped design, develop and apply the first catalytic converter on Ford products and led efforts to develop and implement the single-cell electric-chassis dynameter, a design that became the US standard by 2001. He was instrumental in developing emission testing equipment used in Ford emissions laboratories worldwide.

Through his involvement with the American Automobile Manufacturers' Association, Bob chaired a committee that initiated a program to establish and maintain emissions and fuel economy correlations between Ford, Chrysler, and GM and the US Environmental Protection Agency. This has proven beneficial in establishing the best practice for new emissions testing facilities.

Bob has been a leader in reducing automobile emissions and a strong advocate for a cleaner environment.